Elected Officials & Advocates Call for Improvements, More Transparency in Gov. Cuomo’s Police Reporting Proposal

As the New York State Legislature held hearings on criminal justice reform, New York State senators and assembly members joined civil rights advocates and community groups to announce support for strengthening Governor Cuomo’s proposal to require reporting on policing data.

“I applaud Communities United for Police Reform for their unrelenting leadership in increasing the transparency and accountability at all levels of our criminal justice system,” said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol, Chair of the Standing Committee on Codes. “I look forward to a final budget agreement which will give the public the most complete and holistic view of our summons system while fully protecting the privacy of our citizens.”

“New York should set an example nationally by adopting comprehensive public reporting requirements for policing data that improves upon Governor Cuomo's current proposal,” said Priscilla Gonzalez of Communities United for Police Reform. “It's critical that policymakers and communities know how New Yorkers are being impacted by police policies and practices, as reflected by the recommendation of President Obama's task force. Complete transparency is the only way our state can take a first step towards improving justice, policing and safety for all New Yorkers.”

The group called for more comprehensive data reporting, enhanced transparency through public release of the data, and stronger individual privacy protections for New Yorkers, urging that New York be a national leader on the collection and public reporting of policing data.

“Trust between law enforcement and the people that they serve is integral to the safety of our communities, but in order to make strides towards rebuilding it, law enforcement agencies be transparent to the public,” said Jose Lopez, Lead Organizer of Make the Road New York. “The collection and dissemination of police data on violations, misdemeanors, arrests and other law enforcement data aggregated by demographics is paramount to understanding and improving policing. Not making this data publicly available will do nothing but further drive a wedge between law enforcement agencies and the public.”

“As the nation takes on the important task of police reform, it becomes even more crucial that all police behavior is transparent and accountable,” said Alyssa Aguilera, Political Director of VOCAL-NY. “By ensuring that every police department in New York State is reporting the full scope and demographics of police encounters - especially low-level summonses and tickets - we can keep in check any discrimination and bias that may be occurring.”

The unified call for improving the governor’s budget proposal follows the recommendation in the recently released report by President Obama’s Taskforce on 21st Century Policing for law enforcement agencies to increase transparency through the improved collection and public reporting of policing data. The task force specifically recommended agencies “to collect, maintain, and analyze demographic data on all detentions (stops, frisks, searches, summonses, and arrests),” as well as “officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths.” The task force of law enforcement experts and community leaders was convened in the aftermath of the recent high-profile killings of several unarmed Americans at the hands of police officers, which has fueled demands for better accountability, transparency and other criminal justice reforms.

“Last week, President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing made scores of recommendations designed to improve trust between law enforcement and local communities throughout the nation,” said Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson. “A significant part of this report concerns data collection and analysis by the nation’s 18,000 law enforcement jurisdictions. We know from our work with stop and frisk that improvements in data collection here in New York must include age, gender, race and other important factors that are necessary to devise evidence-based policies to improve relations between citizens and the police. New York must carefully agree upon the software to be used to collect this important data and ensure that civil rights groups and advocates have access to such data so that best practices can be created.”

“Only through transparency can we understand the impact of policies that rely on aggressive enforcement of low-level offenses,” said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “With that, we can address the problem of racial profiling and begin to restore the trust between police and the communities they are supposed to protect. New Yorkers have a right to know whenever a person dies at the hands of the police; the race, ethnicity, and gender of people charged with low-level offenses; as well as information on where law enforcement activity is happening most across the state. New York must pass this basic transparency bill to affirm loud and clear what the world has been waiting to hear from our state government in the aftermath of the killing of Eric Garner: black lives DO matter.”

The presidential task force’s recommendation came the same week as the U.S. Department of Justice’s found systemic civil rights violations of Black residents by the Ferguson Police Department and criminal justice system, which further highlighted policing practices across the country that have a discriminatory impact. Enhanced transparency of data on police policies, practices and impact has been a priority for Communities United for Police Reform because it is critical to providing a better understanding of policing in communities throughout the state and a step towards meaningful criminal justice reform.

“It is evident that we need to implement drastic changes in how law enforcement interacts with the communities they are tasked to protect,” said Senator Gustavo Rivera. “But to efficiently repair our broken system, we first need to know which policies are making our system unjust,” said State Senator Gustavo Rivera. “It is imperative that we increase transparency around policing practices to help us identify how we can effectively repair police-community relations throughout our State.”

“The enforcement of low-level drug offenses - whether they end in summonses, tickets or arrests - disproportionately impact communities of color even though we know that whites use drugs at similar rates as people of color,” said Kassandra Frederique, New York Policy Manager of the Drug Policy Alliance. The systemic racial bias in criminal enforcement must end. Without sufficient data to track law enforcement activities, we will not be able to work in good faith towards a more equitable and fair justice system. The legislature should pass comprehensive data collection and reporting legislation to ensure full transparency and accountability of policing activities across the state."

Data around the use of stop-and-frisk in New York City over the past decade highlighted stark disparities in who was impacted by the practice and demonstrated its ineffectiveness in protecting the safety of city residents. A limited glimpse into data on the enforcement of non-criminal violations in New York City, as a result of disparate enforcement through “broken windows” policing, has indicated a troubling racial disparity as well.

“We know, anecdotally, that communities of color have been bearing the brunt of discriminatory policing practices across New York State for many years,” said Dr. Hazel Dukes, President of the NAACP - New York State Conference. “We need more information from our police departments about how their practices and tactics affect our communities, this information is vital to begin the movement to reform police policies and practices so that all New Yorkers are safe and are protected from civil rights violations at the hands of those, sworn to protect and serve.”

“The first step to reforming law enforcement practices and enhancing relationships between police and communities is transparency and accountability,” said Carmen Perez, co-founder of Justice League NYC. “New York City is a prime example of how data validates the concerns of communities of color, who for so long have been impacted by over-policing. They were right. Statewide mandatory reporting of violations and misdemeanors is essential to understanding street policing across the state.  Second step, is appointing a special prosecutor in every case of police killings of civilians.”

The group specifically called for the following improvements to the governor’s Executive Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2015 Article VII Legislation in the 2015-16 Executive Budget:

1. Report on the race, ethnicity, age, and sex of those suspected of all violations and misdemeanors, as well as for all arrest-related deaths. While the budget proposal requires the collection of demographic data on those arrested or cited for offenses that do not require the taking of fingerprints, it fails to require demographic data collection on the enforcement of misdemeanors that do require fingerprinting and arrest-related deaths.
    
2. Capture data on and provide separate analysis of arrests, appearance tickets, and summonses. Summonses are omitted from the demographic reporting requirement in the current proposal. It is also unclear whether the term “summons” encompasses only summonses as defined in the Criminal Procedure Law, which are issued by courts, or whether it refers to tickets issued by NYPD officers, which are colloquially called “summonses.” This should be clarified to ensure the collection and reporting of data on the enforcement of low level offenses to understand how and when a person is arrested versus being ticketed for a minor infraction.
    
3. Identify the offenses New Yorkers are being charged with and the dispositions of these enforcement actions. The current proposal fails to identify the underlying offenses for which arrests are made and appearance tickets and summons are issued. In New York City, over 25% of the summonses issued in 2013 were for alleged open container violations, with disorderly conduct and riding a bicycle on the sidewalk in a distant second and third, respectively.[1] The data further indicates that as many as 20% of violations tickets are dismissed as facially insufficient.[2] These statistics raise important questions about how state and local resources are used and whether officers need additional training on enforcing these lowest level infractions, which statewide reporting can help to answer.
    
4. Include geographic indicator for enforcement activity. The current proposal does not indicate where arrests are made or appearance tickets and summonses issued. Mandating geographic reporting will help complete the picture of low level enforcement throughout the state. In some jurisdictions, such as New York City, it may be possible to gather precinct data in reports from the police department.
    
5. Protect privacy on minor charges. OCA is the more appropriate agency to implement these reforms than the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), where the current proposal places the responsibility. The OCA is better positioned to collect and report on data about low level enforcement without jeopardizing individuals’ privacy or risking any linkages between the data being gathered and an individual’s criminal history records. Non-criminal enforcement already carries outsized collateral costs for New Yorkers; our state must not create a data-reporting scheme that risks compounding those costs by linking violations to criminal history reports.
    
6. Require data on low level enforcement to be made publicly available. To further the public’s interest in government transparency, the data collected pursuant to these provisions must be widely and easily available. To that end, the information reported should be published online in a publicly accessible place.

“The National Action Network stands with the NYCLU and other good government and reform groups calling for greater transparency in policing,” said Minister Kirsten John Foy, Northeast Regional Director for the National Action Network. “The lack of transparency has long been a fault line in police community relations. Conversely, when transparency is present the level of cooperation is elevated, the level of trust is increased and the relationship between police and community is healthier. We applaud the governor for introducing greater transparency in this year budget proposal. We do however believe there are still significant conversations to be had about administrative implementation that protects citizens from unnecessary encroachment and imposition into personal legal matters.”
“Without the data to understand what is happening in our criminal justice system, we are only being told half the story,” said Helen Schaub, New York State Director of Policy and Legislation for 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. “We strongly support Governor Cuomo and the legislature passing a budget that includes comprehensive data reporting provisions, including race and ethnic  data for summonses, misdemeanors, and other police actions statewide. This initiative will preserve public safety while guarding against unfair discrimination and the impacts this has placed on communities of color.”

“With all the talk about transparency and ethics, a law that would compile data about police practices should be a no-brainer,” said Jess Wisneski, Legislative & Campaigns Director for Citizen Action of New York. “Too often our justice system creates unjust results. We expect that this information will verify the stories we hear every day: that our criminal justice system negatively impacts people of color and can have devastating effects on people's lives, families, and communities. With this information, New York will be able to make meaningful reforms so that the system begins to treat every individual with fairness and dignity.”

“It is our belief that the public has a fundamental right to know how the police interact with their fellow citizens,” said Edward Rush, New York State Legislative Director of Working Families Organization.

###

[1] Criminal Court of the City of New York, “Annual Report 2013,” 33-35 (July 2014), available at: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/COURTS/nyc/criminal/2013%20Annual%20Report....
[2] Id. at 33.